Corina Dinu - Kindred

Neither face looks at the other — both look outward, past the frame, toward something the viewer can't see. And yet they belong together. It's in the color: the same warm terracotta running through both faces, the same gold catching both sets of eyes.
Artist: Corina-Elena Dinu ("Corina Dinu"), Romanian, b. 1979
Title, year, medium: "Kindred," 2026, acrylic and gold leaf on canvas, palette knife and fine detail work
Dimensions:
Image size: 90 x 90 cm
Canvas size: 100 x 100 cm (5cm margin on each side, intended for framing)
Sold unframed
Signature: Signed lower left, front, in acrylic
Edition: Unique work, not a print or edition — one of one
Provenance: Sold directly from the artist's studio
Documentation: Certificate of Authenticity included, signed by the artist, provided upon sale
Condition: Excellent, as created — no restoration, no damage, no fading
Shipping: Sent unframed, rolled in a rigid protective tube. Shipment is insured for full value and fully tracked, with tracking number provided upon dispatch.
Between the two faces runs a column unlike anything else in my work — dozens of small hand-painted motifs over gold leaf, each one different, like a row of tiny windows or old doors, each holding something private. I spent far longer on that strip than on either face; it's the part of the painting people find last, and the part they usually stay with longest.
The eyes do the heavy lifting here. Heavy-lidded, warm brown, rendered with real shading instead of flat cubist blocks — a departure from the sharper geometry I usually work in. Around them, the rest of the composition stays structured and architectural, but the faces themselves feel almost lived-in.
I think of this piece less as two people and more as two moments belonging to the same life — separate, but never really apart.
I trained in Fine Arts and at the Istituto Marangoni, and my work has been sold through the Tate Gallery and Rippingham Art Gallery in London.